updated 04:10 pm EDT, Fri September 1, 2006

Vista Reaches RC1

Microsoft has often been maligned for its frequent delays to Windows Vista, which have prompted some computer manufacturers to offer coupons during the holidays to drive sales after the most recent delay to January 2007. Fears of further delays have been partially addressed by the completion of Vista Release Candidate 1, announced today by Microsoft executive Jim Allchin in the official development team blog. It will initially seed to developers and hardware manufacturers; a public release is also scheduled but has not been formally announced. Response to the quality of recent builds has been much more positive than for Beta 2, which invited criticism even from long-term Microsoft supporters for its poor performance and unnecessarily strict User Account Control feature.